Thread: Carving a hardwood Whaleboat (rowboat) miniture

G'day Jason. Welcome aboard - the moaning chair is on the left and the esky hides behind the door

Unless my memory has gone completely decrepit, the navy used whaleboats as work boats. An enquiry there might shed some light.

Instead of carving it out of one bit, how about stripping some veneer and planking it.

Richard

I'm not sure if the links below will help you, but maybe they're a start:

http://www.modelshipbuilder.com/mode...mcquillan.html

http://www.modelboat.com/model26.html

http://www.modelshipworld.com/phpBB2...fb3d85447c5b0d

http://www.acrossthepond.net/GKmodellbau.htm

Hi Jason,

Are you planning to hollow it our and show interior detail, like in the pics shown in Springwater's links? If so, this will be hard in such a small boat as the sides will need to be thin and probably a lot more effort than strip-planking it like the ones shown. And you can even buy a kit with all the parts, plans, fittings, etc - still requires a degree of skill so more challenging than a plastic model.

If it's just going to be solid, then no problems. Unless you can do it by eye from pictures, the best way is to get plans, then make templates from the "lines" - and then mark on the blank where each line is, and carve away until the template matches the wood. I hope this makes sense!

Most libraries have a few model ship building books, or do a search on "carving model ship hulls" on the internet and you'll find some how-to articles.

I don't have any whaleboat plans, but try www.modelshipyard.com.au in the Blue Mountains, they should have ones you can buy. Otherwise try the Yahoo Groups "Seaways Shipmodellers List" or "ModelShipWrights" and ask nicely if anyone has plans they could send you of typical Australian / Southern Ocean whaling ships - I've swapped plans with a number of people on the lists and most are helpful.

Good luck and we hope to see pics of your endeavours.

Regards,
Darren

Thank you all.

I have just started a new job and so the project is on hold to just weekends. I think that I will get the books and do some much need research.
Again thank you all so much - I will post ongoing pics for your amusement.